Spiced Sweet Potato Blondies

It's been two quiet weeks here at Cinnamon Girl but those who follow my bakery ramblings on Facebook already know that I was celebrating my birthday (september 18th, mark your calendars for the next year! hee hee), seizing the last days of summer and of course eating cake, lots of birthday cake!

Now it's time to go back to the routine, the blogging tasks, recipes testing and also time to burn off those extra calories of my delicious birthday cake!

Days begin to get shorter here and the air is not so warm anymore...yes, ladies and gents, autumn is here and seems like my body isn't ready for it cause I caught the first cold of the season but despite the runny nose and being half deaf, it's all good. That didn't stop me to bring you a new recipe with a nice autumn-ish touch: sweet, moist and dense Vegan Sweet Potato Blondies. These are certainly dense and sweet so I changed up the recipe a bit to suit my taste and make them not too overwhelming sweet: the original recipe calls for 2/3 cups of granulated sugar and 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar, well I thought that was too much so I kept the same amount of dark brown sugar but reduced the other one to 2/4 cups.

Baked sweet potatoes...mmmmm...probably one of my favorite scents in the whole wide world and a healthy sweet treat that I love to enjoy when it's cold and gloomy outside (gosh, I can't believe I'm already using the words 'cold' and 'gloomy' again...fall season is definitely here, I guess).

To me, thinking about homemade bread, pumpkin muffins and all things warm and cozy that you can do when it's chilly makes the transition from summer to fall a tad bit more bearable.

I'm sure that these delicious squares will help you beat the autumn blues for sure!

Receta en español aquí!

Spiced Sweet Potato Blondies
(Recipe adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar)

Ingredients
(Makes 12 blondies)
3/4 cup baked orange-colored sweet potato, mashed.
1/2 cup sunflower oil.
2/4 cup sugar.
1/2 cup dark brown sugar.
1/4 cup nondairy milk.
2 tsp vanilla.
1 1/4 cups unbleached flour.
1/4 tsp baking powder.
1/4 tsp salt.
1 tsp ground cinnamon.
1/2 tsp ground ginger.
1/4 tsp ground allspice*.
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts.

*Allspice is also known as Jamaica pepper.

Directions

Line the bottom of an 8 x 8-inch square brownie pan with parchment paper and spray the sides with a little nonstick cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC).

Mash the baked sweet potato with a fork until it's pureed.

In a large bowl, mix together the sweet potato, oil, sugar, brown sugar, nondairy milk, and vanilla until smooth. Don't worry if a few small chunks of sweet potato remain in the batter.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and all-spice. Mix just enough to moisten, then fold in the nuts. Do not overmix.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan and level the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 28 to 32 minutes, take care not to overbake. Blondies are done if a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.

Allow the blondies to cool at least 30 minutes for the texture and flavor to fully develop, then slice into 12 squares.

Store in a covered container.